| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to show that if Brace's hypothesis concerning the role of random mutations in structural reduction (PME) is accepted for the sake of argument, then it cannot be used to explain hominid tooth size reduction since the Mousterian. Specifically it is shown that Brace's Hypothesis implies a smaller variance in dental asymmetry for Neandertal than modern man. Variance analysis reveals that, to the contrary, Neandertal dentitions are more variable than a large sample of modern man's. Finally it is shown that the sequence of dental asymmetry per tooth class is approximately the same in Neandertal as in modern man. |
